50 per cent decline in vehicle registration

Chennai

According to the vehicle registration data, RTOs in the State, which reopened on May 18, have seen registration of 32,840 vehicles last month and 25,168 vehicles as on date in June. Last year, 1.60 lakh vehicles were registered in May while 1.51 lakh vehicles in June.

A senior official of the Transport Commissionerate said that the slight rise in vehicle registration in June does not signify a revival in consumer demand. “Most of these registrations trace back to the pending books made just before the lockdown, which is now getting registered and executed due to the easing of the lockdown norms. We will get a clear picture of the vehicle registration trend only after July,” the official said, adding that there was a slump in the new vehicle registration since 2019 and it seems to be continuing.

The official noted that pre-lockdown, RTOs across the State registered about 8,000 new vehicles a day and it has come down by over 50 per cent now. “After the registration of the vehicles which were booked prior to lockdown, we expect a further decline in the registration considering the economic situation and uncertainty in job markets,” the senior official noted.

As a preventive measure, the public who wanted to register their vehicles, seeking new driving licences, learner licences and renewals were being allowed in the RTOs only if they get prior appointments through VAHAN portal.

“We have limited the number of appointments given for new driving licenses, LLRs and renewals to 20 applicants a day at the RTOs in the city and other urban areas while it was 30 applicants at the RTOs in the rural areas to maintain social distancing as per the government directive,” the official said, adding that earlier there were not many restrictions but even then there would be a ceiling of 90 LLR applicants a day at the RTOs and numbers of persons taking the driving test would be 30 to 45 in various RTOs.